An annular solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit between Thursday, May 9 and Friday, May 10, 2013, with a magnitude of 0.9544. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 3.6 days before apogee (on May 13, 2013, at 14:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was smaller. Annularity was visible from parts of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland, Australia, the Louisiade Archipelago (belonging to Papua New Guinea), the Solomon Islands, and Kiribati. A partial eclipse was visible for parts of Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, and Hawaii.

Visibility

Annularity was visible from a 171 to 225 kilometre-wide track that traversed Australia, eastern Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and the Gilbert Islands, with the maximum of 6 minutes 3 seconds visible from the Pacific Ocean east of French Polynesia.

Images

Eclipse details

Shown below are two tables displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. The first table outlines times at which the moon's penumbra or umbra attains the specific parameter, and the second table describes various other parameters pertaining to this eclipse.

Eclipse season

This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.

Related eclipses

Eclipses in 2013

Metonic

Tzolkinex

Half-Saros

Tritos

Solar Saros 138

Inex

Triad

Solar eclipses of 2011–2014

Saros 138

Metonic series

Tritos series

Inex series